Book chronicles the short, tragic rule of Maximilian of Mexico

SAN ANTONIO — As the Civil War raged in what had recently been the United States, another bloody civil war was erupting south of the border in the 1860s.

With America preoccupied, French emperor Napoléon III — the nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, in cahoots with royalist Mexicans, the Catholic Church and other European powers, including the English and the Spanish — saw an opportunity to install an Austrian prince and his Belgian princess as ruling Mexican royalty and take advantage of the country's vast resources.

President Benito Juárez naturally bristled at the invasion and cobbled together an army to defend democracy in his roiling homeland, where, like most Mexican presidents of the era, he was highly unpopular.

With generals such as Porfirio Díaz, he led an unrelenting charge against the French army, initially repulsed at Puebla on May 5, 1862 — which is why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo. (Ironically, it would be Díaz, the dominating force in Mexican politics in the latter part of the 19th century, whose iron rule eventually would lead to the Mexican Revolution.)

French forces battled back, eventually taking Puebla and Mexico City, and in April 1864, Maximilian, the younger Hapsburg brother of Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I, was crowned emperor of Mexico, his brilliant young wife, Carlota, daughter of Belgian King Leopold I, sitting on the throne beside him.

“The concept was not new, as royal clans commonly dispatched various family members to govern other countries as it suited them, whether or not they were familiar with the land, language or culture,” San Antonio scholar M.M. McAllen writes in her thoroughly engrossing new book, “Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico,” published by Trinity University Press.

McAllen, whose previous books include the superb “I Would Rather Sleep in Texas: A History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley & the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant,” has a reading followed by a book-signing at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Twig Book Shop at Pearl Brewery.

“The reign of Maximilian and Carlota is such a complex and colorful story, one that deserved a fresh and more thorough telling,” said Tom Payton, associate director of Trinity Press. “When we discovered that McAllen had undertaken the project, we knew that in her hands it would find the perfect balance between scholarly substance and the vivid storytelling that would bring it to life for readers. It really is an amazing story, one that so few people know about and which we're honored to help bring to light.”

Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of Maximilian's installation as Mexican emperor, McAllen has forged a multifaceted jewel of narrative history, sweeping and cinematic, delving into one of the more fascinating and tragically misguided episodes in Mexico's history — a rich pageant that is full of them.

Seven years in the making, the book involved research and interviews on three continents, from Hapsburg archives in Austria to Chapultepec Castle, the ruling couple's hilltop Mexican home during their brief reign from 1864 to 1867.

“It was a lot more overwhelming than I thought it would be when I got into it,” McAllen, 50, said during an interview at her Terrell Hills home. “There are literally thousands of characters in the book, but I dealt with that by coalescing the story around Maximilian and Carlota. Historians often don't write for people but for other historians. I wanted to write this book for people because it is such a spectacular story.”

Actually, McAllen had been thinking about Mexico's so-called Second Empire (Iturbide's reign in the 1820s was the first) for many years.

“I had family in Mexico City and Cuernavaca, and when I would travel there in early adulthood, people would still talk about Maximilian,” she said. “People in Mexico continue to ask what would have happened if Maximilian had lived.”

The reason? In what can be seen as a rogue's gallery of Mexican leaders (Santa Anna anyone?), Maximilian was a rarity among 19th-century royalty: He had empathy. He and Carlota, a remarkable woman who was a writer, musician and artist, as well as an active stateswoman herself, rare for the period, wanted to rule Mexico amicably, to solve its nagging political, financial and religious problems.

“It's a fish-out-of-water story,” McAllen said. “They were idealists. They greatly admired the culture of Mexico and wanted to rule the country fairly. But Maximilian made bets with the liberals and bets with the conservatives, and unfortunately lost them both.”

Napoléon III quickly discovered that Mexico was not a backwater country easily conquered.

As the costs — financial and human — mounted for what he thought would be a quick Mexican excursion, he lost interest in the country — and its recently installed rulers. He withdrew the French army, leaving Maximilian exposed to his enemies, which gathered in superior forces — 60,000 Republicans to 21,000 Imperialistas — at Querétaro in early 1867. It did not end well for Maximilian — bravely, but not well.

Juárez spoke for the Mexican people when he said: “Maximilian of Hapsburg knew our country only by geography. To this foreigner we owe neither blessings or evils.”

“The period of Maximilian's reign is as famous for its overt influences as it is for the reactions of the Mexican people,” McAllen said. “While the convergence of so many nationalities had an impact on the music, the food and other cultural traditions, it also resulted in the emergence of a new certitude among the people to be free of European interference. Known as nationalism among historians, for perhaps the first time in 45 years, the people had asserted their wish for an autonomous republic.

“That is not to say that the aura of courtly excess, formality and ceremony left with Maximilian and Carlota,” she continued. “Indeed, those formalities are still embraced today by the elite segment of society. However, in an ironic way, the interest displayed by France and other European nations caused a swelling of national pride and the desire to protect Mexico's natural resources both material and cultural. So in many ways, the effect the Second Empire had on Mexico was as much what Maximilian did as what he failed to do.”

sbennett@express-news.net

More Information

Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico

By M.M.

McAllen

Trinity University Press, $29.95

On view

In conjunction with “Maximilian and Carlota,” rare art, artifacts, newspaper articles, photographs and objects from the reign of Maximilian and Carlota are on view at the Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway, through March 30.